So this book seemed to take me forever to finish, but I really enjoyed it. I’d never heard of Edward Abbey before this book, but it turns out he’s quite a well-known author on environmental issues. (He died in 1989.) Anyways, Desert Solitaire is a great book. It’s Abbey’s account of his time in the Arches National Monument in Utah as a seasonal park ranger (I think in the early 60s?) and the beauty and peace he finds there. Abbey seems like a witty, ornery fellow – you know the old fart who bitches about progress and the trappings of society, especially the automobile. Here he talks about his plan to ban automobiles from national parks and force visitors to travel by bicycle only:
What about children? What about the aged and infirm? Frankly, we need waste little sympathy on these two pressure groups. Children too small to ride bicycles and too heavy to be borne on their parents’ backs need only wait a few years – if they are not run over by automobiles they will grow into a lifetime of joyous adventure, if we save the parks and leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. The aged merit even less sympathy: after all they had the opportunity to see the country when it was still relatively unspoiled.
So now I’m ready to go to Utah and check out Arches National Park! (Just what Abbey would not have wanted!)
Anyhow, I think my next book will be The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It seems everyone and his mother that I know is currently reading this book, so I feel compelled to follow suit.
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March 13, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Larisa
That sounds interesting. I’m still not sure if I ever read that book or not. But I’m fairly certain that I at least own it.
Have you start Omnivore yet? I’m still listening to it. It’s really quite interesting. I have drunk a diet coke or eaten high fructose corn syrup since I started listening to it. I think it’s helped me lose weight. I also haven’t eaten any meat other than wild caught salmon and a “free range” chicken. It’s gotten me so paranoid about all those terms though that soon I’m only going to eat things I grow in my own back yard.
On a similar note, I bought a book called “diet for a new america” at a used book sale. Have you heard of that? I’m becoming a little obsessed about reading books about food. Meanwhile, I really have read much of anything lately.
March 14, 2009 at 1:19 am
bookwormsle
I have started Omnivore and I too am enjoying it. I’m still on the ‘corn’ section. I have to say – that part about the feedlots made me glad I was a vegetarian.
I haven’t heard about Diet for a New America but I too like reading about food. It’s the next best thing to eating….